Runaway anti-matter production results in spectacular stellar explosion
A team of astronomers has discovered a distant star that exploded when its center became so hot that matter and anti-matter particle pairs were created. The finding was made by University of Notre Dame astronomer Peter Garnavich and a team of collaborators. The star, dubbed Y-155, began its life around 200 times the mass of our Sun but probably became "pair-unstable" and triggered a runaway thermonuclear reaction that made it visible nearly halfway across the universe. Garnavich and his collaborators discovered the exploding star during the "ESSENCE" supernova search that identified over 200 weaker stellar explosions. Read more
Tussen de bijna tweehonderd verre supernova-explosies die een Amerikaanse onderzoeksteam tussen 2002 en 2007 heeft waargenomen, blijkt een extreem exemplaar te zitten. Supernova Y-155 lijkt zijn leven te zijn begonnen als een ster die maar liefst tweehonderd keer zo zwaar was als onze zon. Zijn explosie kwam op gang doordat zijn inwendige dermate heet werd dat straling veranderde in paren van deeltjes en antideeltjes. Read more
A distant star dubbed Y-155 had nearly 200 times the mass of our sun when it exploded about seven billion years ago, scientists in Indiana said. Y-155 is so far away it is a million times fainter than the unaided human eye can detect, University of Notre Dame astronomer Peter Garnavich said in release Tuesday. Read more
The possibility that stars 150 to 300 times the mass of our Sun might expire as antimatter-driven hypernovae rather than dull black holes or regular supernovae was calculated more than 40 years back, but only recently has it even been possible to observe them. It's thought that such unusual, galaxy-shaking blasts can occur only in "pristine" regions of space where the ur-hydrogen of the universe has not been much contaminated with heavy elements by earlier generations of stars. Read more
University of Notre Dame astronomer Peter Garnavich and a team of collaborators have discovered a distant star that exploded when its center became so hot that matter and anti-matter particle pairs were created. The star, dubbed Y-155, began its life around 200 times the mass of the sun but probably became "pair-unstable" and triggered a runaway thermonuclear reaction that made it visible nearly halfway across the universe. Garnavich and his collaborators discovered the exploding star during the ESSENCE supernova search that identified more than 200 weaker stellar explosions. Read more